Do games, NEED story?

[TheOneBearded]

I don't believe games NEED a story, however, if you aren't going to put the time into making a good story, don't bother putting one in at all.

I think games like CoD would be VASTLY improved if they just cut out the SP part of the game because they obviously spent little to no time on making it even half-assed.

Game companies need to stop spending time on something they have no intention on making even remotely good and should put their resources into making the focus of the game, in CoD's case the multiplayer, better.

I really don't understand why a game like Call of Duty (these days) has a single-player mode. Most people (specifically the more hardcore players) don't even touch this and just go straight to the mulit-player. Do they make it so that they have something to do after tweaking the multi-player? I'm pretty sure that they can dish out over four CoD games if they didn't have to bother with the single-player mode.

Damn, I really miss the good old days of Call of Duty 3.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Not all games NEED a good story to be fantastic. *points at Unreal Tournament 1999*

What all games need, though, is CONTEXT. Or at least most games need context. I mean, no one really gives a damn what's going on in Tetris, right?

So no, not all games require a deep story to be enjoyable. However, a good story can make a good game fantastic and truly memorable. And it doesn't even need to have a good plot. Story can also be told through atmosphere and background details.

The writing in Demon's Souls, quite simply, sucks. But I'll still argue it's a good story. Why? The atmosphere. The bloodstains, the corpses, those all do a lot more to convey what's going on than a few lines of speech. You know a small handful about how this place used to be a paradise on earth, and then you see what it is now. It makes the severity hit home.

Kinda like that.

A good story with good depth and good characters (Like Tales of the Abyss) is admittedly hard to come by, but games like Demon's Souls, Bioshock, etc, are blessedly becoming more common, and I'll take what I can get.

Hey, Ranylyn, might I recommend renting Spec Ops The Line? DAMN good narrative, atmosphere and character development (mostly for the main character). If you can forgive a somewhat shallow first hour, the remaining 6-7 hours will blow your freakin mind.

Oh, and I don't hate you for hating FF7. As much as I loved that game when I was younger, I agree that it had some serious narrative flaws. Like, major major ones. That and the materia system made every single character feel EXACTLY the same. FF4 is way way way more awesome.

 

[Murmillos]

Games need story as much as movies/moves/plays/tv-shows do.

Depending on what type of entertainment you are going for, the amount of story can be as simple as you are guy X killing Z to save Y too more complex ideas that show or reflect on soul searching emotional questions.

 

[TehCookie]

Obviously it depends on the game - puzzle games don't really need anything in the way of a story, but RPGs fall almost completely flat without one.

Skyrim did pretty well.

I don't think all games need a story but it never hurts a game, if it's bad you can just ignore it and play like it doesn't exist (as shown above). Besides stories usually set some sort of goal, even in a simple game like Mario beating the level to save the princess sounds better than beating the level because that's what you do in games.

Are you really claiming Skyrim didn't have a story? I guess I imagined the entire dragon bit, the quests, and the factions. The fact that it takes placed in the already established world and takes past game accounts into it. Not to mention it let's players forge their own unique story and experience as well.

I thought it obvious enough that I knew Skyrim had a story and I just covered me ears and yelled lalala over it but I guess not. I was half joking when I said that but I was also half serious.

 

[Nieroshai]

Games as a whole don't need stories. They do benefit from having them, though.

 

[littlealicewhite]

It is perfectly possible *and* acceptable to make a game without a story, however I happen to prefer stories in my games. Not to say I would reject a game offered to my by a friend because it had no story, rather I simply don't look for games like that.

Minecraft is one example. I heard about it, and was a bit curious but otherwise ignored it until Yahtzee's complementary review of it. I then pirated it and proceeded to fall in love with it. I had to completely wipe my computer about six months ago, and I couldn't bring myself to pirate it again because I loved the game and respected Majong too much.

Games can be great without a story, but a game can be just as great with one.

 

[Nieroshai]

Doom.
Thank you very much.

I miss your meaning.
An ancient interdimensional gate is unearthed on one of Mars's moons, through which the armies of Hell invade Mars. A lone soldier fights through the moon base, and wades through Hell itself to close the gate.
Sometimes narrative is passive, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. I feel that as long as a game has a premise, it has a narrative, unless we get as basic as Checkers.

 

[Platypus540]

Games do not need stories to be good, influential, or even classics, but they do need stories to be truly great and realize the full, unique potential of the medium.

Games don't necessarily need a story but, with very rare exceptions (puzzles, mostly) they definitely need a context-- even just a really simple setup like "This team is red, this team is blue, and now they're going to shoot the crap out of each other."

 

[Evil Smurf]

Tetris is the best game ever. Tetris has no story.

As for your questions, Hell yeah I'd be okay with it, kudos to the developer for being brave saying that! And for the other, it really depends on what genre it is if I'll want to play it or not. If it's an FPS I want it to be anything other than a modern military one.

Sometimes a story makes the gameplay more worth while, like Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri does. Or bastion

 

[Nieroshai]

No not all games need a story.

But some games need context and the best way for this is usually story.

I would not be happy playing a shooter unless there was at least something there that says who these people are and why they are fighting.
But I would be happy to play something basic like tetrus or some similar type puzzle game with nothing. It just depends on what you are doing.

Tetris had a story. It was about the space race. Through completing tier after tier, you were constructing a Soviet space rocket. If you made it far enough, the rocket would launch. So many basic games have underlying narratives, flavor thrown in to keep us interested. Completely story-less games are rare. Deep down, we as humans feel a need for context in pretty much everything we do. We hate our jobs when we stop seeing a point. To be honest, we resent our relationships once we think they exist simply to be there.

 

[Nieroshai]

I always wonder if these types of discussions occur for all fledgeling media, that if 80 years ago people were arguing whether film needed a story or if it's better off being just a series of moving images.

It did. Those were insane times, with the birth of Dadaism and abstract expressionism. For some, film should only exist to record reality as it is. To some, film was a way to tell stories. To others, film should be used to show how pointless life is by recording random images.
Here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEuDFJd6_2U] is a good example of Dada. Random images and out-of-place music woven together into an art piece meant to show the inherent meaningless of everything. It's enjoyable in the same way as a Jackson Pollack; it's fun to look at sometimes, but it doesn't really mean anything significant.

 

[Platypus540]

Tetris had a story. It was about the space race. Through completing tier after tier, you were constructing a Soviet space rocket. If you made it far enough, the rocket would launch.

Is... is this true? I honestly can't tell if you're joking or not. I mean, I think you are, but still...

 

[blazearmoru]

Games need interaction, not story. I personally love games who's core is the story for the sheer feeling of being immersed cus as a male I don't have the imagination of a female. (true shit btw) but please explain to me why duces do not qualify for a game due to lack of a storyline. There.

 

[madkill]

CoD seems to do okay without having a story, so no games don't need a story.


Realistically, TF2 doesn't have a story just character backgrounds which is completely different.

 

[Nieroshai]

Tetris had a story. It was about the space race. Through completing tier after tier, you were constructing a Soviet space rocket. If you made it far enough, the rocket would launch.

Is... is this true? I honestly can't tell if you're joking or not. I mean, I think you are, but still...

I kid you not. "Beat" any of the older versions, past the 15th round I think. The rocket lifts off. In the older ones, the theme was Russian and there was an onion dome building on the menu screen.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Context is important. Sure, blowing shit up is fun, but if you need some kind of context to get real satisfaction out of it. How good would Mass Effect be if it was just some barely linked together shooting gallery of various aliens? It's what really redeemed ME2 for me, which really was just a bunch of shooting galleries, but they're put together in a way that compels you to actually progress in the story.

 

[madkill]

...How good would Mass Effect be if it was just some barely linked together shooting gallery of various aliens? ...

Unreal Tournament Single-Player.

 

[Nimcha]

Does this sentence, NEED a comma?

 

[Kroxile]

Anyone remember when a game's story was a paragraph or two in the instruction manual?

And those were some of the best years in gaming ever.

My personal opinion is that I find I care about games more if I get into their story, but I don't find it necessary if the gameplay is good enough. Though no story often makes a very forgettable experience.

 

[Rblade]

it needs some kind of context. Puzzle games aside. And maby sports games.

You say pong but I cannot honestly say I can play that "game" for more then 5 minutes without getting very very bored indeed.

If other types of games don't have a context at all they will be shiny pixel clicking simulators.

Then again, this comming from a guy who thinks up a story and motivation behind minesweeper.